January 6, 2008

Who's Hot and Who's Not: Atlantic Yards-Related Edition

Curbed

NoLandGrab: We missed this article in November, so we'll just consider this a 2007 recap...

1) Brooklyn Planning Commission Member Dolly Williams, who got her share of coverage for where she parked her yellow Porsche, was fined $4,000 yesterday for voting on the Atlantic Yards development while having a financial interest in the the project. (Insert Hello, Dolly! joke here.) The Brooklyn Planning Commissioner had a $250,000 investment in the Nets and the new arena. She put it into escrow and then voted in favor of the plan. [NYDN]

2) Speaking of the Planning Commission, Borough President Marty Markowitz, who'd previously said he wouldn't reappoint Ms. Williams after various conflicts, has named a replacement. She's longtime Community Board 2 Chair Shirley McRae, who says she only owns a house in Fort Greene and doesn't have a Porsche. Dan Goldstein of DDDB said of the new appointment: "It's got to be an improvement over someone who's just been fined over conflicts of interest." [Sun]

3) The Atlantic Yards Ombudsperson cometh. In an interesting bit of coincidental timing, the Empire State Development Corp. announced that Forrest R. Taylor has been named Atlantic Yards Ombudsperson. Project watchdogs promptly froze the "Ombudsman Clock" that was counting off the days between the time of a promised hire the actuality at 203 days, 8 hours, 38 minutes and 28 seconds. [AYR]

4) To welcome the AY Ombudsman, Develop Don't Destroy, which has had a burst of posts about all the developments, tossed up its first question for him: "What makes the Brooklyn arena's proximity to streets different from the Newark arena that it will not require street closings?" [DDDB]